A Once and Future Dream
by librarian-byday
Summary: What is life like for young Rex Stewart and what happened to him during the time Chronos screwed everything up? How are these two realities connected?
1. Prologue: The Dream

A glimpse of Rex Stewart's childhood versus what happened before the Chronos timeline was fixed. My first "official" fanfic. Honest reviews, please.

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**Prologue**

Ten-year-old Rex Stewart woke up screaming one night.

He had the dream again.

"Rex?" Shayera somehow instantly appeared at his door.

Her son was silent, too terrified to speak.

Rex noticed the mace silhouetted alongside her. He saw he was taking her from her work, but she didn't seem to mind. She was more worried about him than she was about the monitor schedule.

"Again?" she sighed, stepping into the room.

He nodded. By now his heartbeat was settling, but he was still shaken when his mother took a seat at the edge of his bed.

"Rex," she began, calmly masking the worry in her voice. "This is the third time ---"

"Fourth," he interrupted, eyes fixed on the shadows stretched across the sheets.

Shayera fell silent and looked at her son questioningly. He looked up at her, then back down at his hands wringing the blankets.

"Two nights before Dad left for his mission," he said. "That was the first time I had the dream."

His mother put her arm around him and opened her mouth to speak, but something interrupted her. She put her hand to the transmitter in her ear and turned her head aside.

"Give me a minute," she said, then she turned back to her son. She lightly stroked his dark hair, but he wouldn't look at her as she spoke to him.

"What happened in the first dream?" she asked gently.

"The same thing that happens every time, Mom," he answered, frustration shivering in his voice. "He _died_."

Shayera dropped her hand from her son's head to his shoulder. "Why didn't you tell us about it then?"

"I don't know!" he shouted. "It was just a stupid dream!" He tossed his blankets aside and tried to get out of bed, but his mother held fast to his arm.

"Sit down, Rex," she ordered calmly.

He didn't give her much of a fight, even though he wanted to. "It's just a stupid dream," he muttered.

"If it's just a stupid dream," she reasoned, "it shouldn't be upsetting you this much." She tried to keep her tone as even as possible, although she now had a few worries of her own. "Your father contacted the Watchtower a few hours ago. Everything's fine. You don't have anything to worry about."

Rex was silent, uncertain, and afraid. He didn't speak for a long time.

Finally, Shayera broke the heavy pause when she hugged her son closer to her and kissed the top of his head.

"Do you want to ---" She was cut off by the buzzing in her ear again. With an irritated sigh, she reached up for the transmitter. "I said give me a minute," she snapped at the voice on the other end. She took the link out of her ear and turned immediately back to her son. Rex watched her finger the device in her hand before she spoke to him again.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she offered. "You're not too old to talk to your mom about stuff, are you?"

She almost got a smile out of him.

Rex sighed. "I'm just scared, Mom," he said. "What if something happens to Dad?"

"Nothing's gonna happen to Dad," she assured him.

"You don't know that, Mom."

He looked up at her, and she looked back down at him. The light from the hallway illuminated the shimmer of green in his eyes. Shayera let out another sigh.

"You're right," she said, brushing some hair from his face. "I don't know the future. But I know your father, and I know he's strong enough and stubborn enough to get back home to us in the end."

Rex almost rolled his eyes. "I know. You've said that before."

"Well maybe," she paused to ruffle his bed-head, "you should listen to me this time. Don't let these stupid dreams put worries in your head, okay?"

"Okay," he shrugged, not entirely convinced.

"Look," she suggested. "How about tomorrow we see J'onn about it?"

Her son cautiously gazed up at her, a little apprehensive.

"Okay, so the mind-reading thing is a little weird," she admitted, "but name one thing in the Metrotower that isn't. Maybe J'onn can help you."

"Maybe," Rex sighed.

"Hey," she coaxed. "Just 'cause he's _green_ doesn't mean we can't trust him, right?"

Shayera was finally successful in getting somewhat of a smile out of him. She gave him another little squeeze, then her attention turned to the round device she had been thoughtfully rolling between her fingers.

"Do you want to talk to your dad?" she offered, a final attempt to ease her son's mind. "I can signal him if you want. He probably won't be able to talk, but he might ---"

"It's okay, Mom," Rex assured her, still grinning. "Besides, I think you'd better go before Mr. Queen blows a gasket and tries to take you out with that boxing glove arrow."

Shayera laughed. "You think I can't take that dope?"

Now Rex really smiled. "You'd knock his lights out."

"You bet I would," she replied. Deciding to follow her son's advice, she got up from the bed and kissed the top of his head once more. "Goodnight, Rexie." She put the comm-link back in her ear. "I'll be in the Monitor Room if you need me."

"Okay." Blankets were pulled back over him, warm fibers brushing softly under his chin.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Mom."


	2. Prologue: The Night Shift

**The Night Shift**

"Nice of you to grace us with your presence," grumbled Green Arrow when Shayera finally came to relieve him from his shift.

Years of practice had taught the hotheaded warrior to hold her tongue. Otherwise she had thought up about four or five different comebacks she could have readily shot back at him. Without even paying a glance she cooly walked past the irritated archer as he exited the room and stationed herself at a monitor screen. Batman stood facing the second screen at the other end of the room.

"If you insist on volunteering for the overnight shifts," his deep voice resonated with detached professionalism, "you could at least show up."

"Give me a break," Shayera defended. "I had to take care of my kid, okay?"

Bruce was predictably unmoved. "What's wrong with him this time?" he asked, though frankly uninterested.

"He's been having a recurring nightmare where his father dies," she answered. "I don't suppose you would know anything about _that_, would you?" she added sardonically, looking up from the keyboard to catch his reflection in the monitor screen. She knew she hit something, but he wouldn't show it. She silently returned to her work.

"The Metrotower isn't the place to raise children," he stated.

"It's the safest place for him," she argued.

"He's too close to your work."

"And if that's the reason for his nightmares, John and I can deal with it."

"Can you?"

Her fingers tensed into a fist. "It's not like we have the option of completely removing him from it. We don't have any cushy secret identities to fall back on."

"That's a decision you both made."

Shayera stopped for a moment, resting her hands on the console. Her gaze fell from the screen.

"We didn't think we had anything to hide back then," she admitted.

_But you do now._

Bruce had to stop himself from saying what he knew she was already thinking. There was an uneasy silence, a sort of mental tension between the two of them. Though he was notoriously skilled at masking emotions, Bruce had to admit to himself that he cared about the boy. There was a certain quietness to him, a shy yet attentive curiosity that he remembered in his much younger self. He prayed the similarities would always end there, but the life the Stewarts still lived was not the type that guaranteed any security for their child. The two of them faced death every day. Defending the universe. Making the world safe for their son, they said.

Rex didn't need them to be heroes, Bruce thought to himself. He needed them to be parents. He needed them simply to be there.

Bruce didn't want to think about what would happen if this kid had to face what he faced. If he lost what he lost.

"Why are you here?" he asked her, finally breaking the tense silence.

"Excuse me?" Shayera looked over her shoulder at him. He returned the glare.

"You've been volunteering for overnights ever since Lantern left for his mission," he said.

"Can't sleep," she answered bluntly before turning back to her keyboard. "Might as well do something productive."

"Shouldn't you have more important things to worry about?"

"Funny, coming from the man who was just giving me grief for spending time with my son a few minutes ago."

Batman said nothing. The humming of the monitors filled another awkward silence.

"Look," she sighed, "let's discuss my poor parenting skills some other time, okay?" She figured he would rather avoid the issue as much as she wanted to herself. She received the light tapping of keys in reply.

"Status of Sector 9," he requested.

Shayera wondered if she should feel guilty for interrupting one of the very few actual conversations Batman chose to have with a teammate. It had been a rare occurrence when he spoke something other than condescending orders to her. She decided to worry about it later.

"Clear," she answered.

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Many thanks to my first reviewers. Sorry this is slow-going. I'm a slow writer. 


	3. Chapter 3

Just FYI, I'll soon be changing my penname to **librarian_byday** to match all my other stuff. _Eventually_ I will actually continue with this story I started _a year ago_, but my muse insists on being mean and frustrating. My apologies to anyone who's been reading this.


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